The Ganda Kingdom Land eviction threats are creating fear in Central govt

Written by SADAB KITATTA KAAYA & ALEX NSUBUGA

Last Updated: 27 February 2015

Part of Nsambya Police barracks

A number of landlords have secured court orders to evict government institutions and repossess their properties, The Observer has learnt.

The impending evictions follow government’s failure to pay ground rent arrears totaling billions of shillings to the landowners. The institutions that face eviction include public universities, hospitals, Uganda Prisons, Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute, schools and farm institutes, among others.

The embattled landlords include Kampala archdiocese, which is demanding more than $74m (Shs 218bn) over the land currently housing Nsambya police barracks. Leaders of the Catholic Church have been meeting President Museveni over the debt, especially after learning that government planned to give away the land to investors.

During their most recent meeting, church leaders told Museveni that they needed the money to prepare for Pope Francis’ anticipated visit to the country. Other units facing evictions include Buwama and Mityana police stations.

“The pre-colonial governments and first post-colonial governments entered into contractual agreements with privately- registered landlords, and took over their land due to its strategic location for the establishment of infrastructure for government institutions,” an official at the Lands ministry told The Observer this week.

CABINET PROBE

To address this looming quagmire, government recently set up a cabinet subcommittee chaired by the minister for Local Government, Adolf Mwesige. Other officials on the subcommittee are Bright Rwamirama, the state minister for Animal Industry; Daudi Migereko, the minister for Lands; and Henry Banyenzaki, the minister of state for Economic Monitoring in the President’s office, and a representative from the Uganda Land Commission.

On Wednesday, President Museveni told cabinet that government needed to move fast and avert what would amount to a crisis. He said there was need to renegotiate some of the agreements government signed with the owners of land, occupied by the affected public institutions. The matter was not concluded, our sources said, and was pushed to the next meeting scheduled for March 4.

Sources added that the Mwesige-led committee is expected to advise government on how it can avert the eviction. Migereko told The Observer yesterday that government had taken on short and medium-term strategies to address the problem.

“The problem has not been attended to for a long time but government has now realized that it is a serious issue and all efforts are being made to find a long-lasting solution,” the minister said.

“It [eviction] is an area of concern. Matters are still in cabinet. Cabinet is going to come out with a clear sustainable solution of land for government programmes and departments,” he said by telephone.

Auditor General John Muwanga recently accused district land boards and accounting officers of various government departments and agencies of failing to protect land under their control.

The auditor general said government officials were conniving with unscrupulous people to steal government land. Similar claims were made last year by Idah Nantaba, the minister of state for Lands, who accused some officials at the ministry of conniving with the mafias to grab government land.

Indeed, one of the mandates of the cabinet subcommittee will be to scrutinize reports that some of the people claiming to be owners of the land may in fact be “mafias” out to get land titles, which are later used to grab government land under unclear circumstances.

Rwamirama told us this week that they will reverse any decisions made by the Uganda Land Commission that gave land to private individuals under dubious circumstances.

During Wednesday’s cabinet meeting at State House Entebbe, Migereko is reported to have tabled documents that showed that the alleged mafias are indeed private landlords who want to take back their land from government.

RE-ENTERED

The Observer has learnt that government has already lost the Mukono district farm institute (DFI) land at Ntaawo, which was re-entered by Church of Uganda. The church has also secured court orders to re-enter part of the land on which Makerere University’s college of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Bio-security stands because government failed to pay more than Shs 333m in ground rent arrears.

An unnamed private landlord has also secured a court order to re-enter his land occupied by Mityana police station.The Observer has also seen documents indicating that government, through similar court orders, has lost part of Kawanda agricultural research station land at Ssenge in Wakiso district and Njeru stock farm, which was retaken by the Ham Mukasa family.

On May 9, 2014, in an attempt to avert the repossessions, Migereko wrote to Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka and Attorney General Peter Nyombi and urged them to intervene.

Without any responses from government, the landlords ran to courts and secured orders to repossess their land. Migereko has reportedly blocked the re-entries, forcing the landlords back to court to commit the commissioner for Land registration Sarah Kulata to civil prison for contempt of court.

In 1944-45, the British Protectorate Government, wishing to acquire mailo land for the expansion of Makerere Technical College and the establishment of a Cotton Research Station at Kawanda, dared challenge the sacrosanctity of the Uganda Agreement of 1900. The British changed one word of article15 and went on to compulsory acquire mailo land. This amendment required was from public works to public purposes.

This change was very strongly contested and was to lead to the dismissal and deportation of the Kattikiro, Samwiri Wamala, and to the assassination of his replacement Martin Luther Nsibirwa.

In order to acquire the land the legalistic British, who could have acquired the land by force, wanted a law passed by the Lukiiko of Buganda. This law was to empower the Kabaka to Acquire Land for Purposes Beneficial to the Nation. With this law in place, the Kabaka would then pass on the land acquired to the Protectorate Government. Indeed it was only time when the citizens of Buganda started to loose their lands and many of them and their grandchildren became squatters without any land ownership rights.

Beti Kamya and the Stockholm syndrome

Left to right: Kampala minister Beti Kamya, DP president general Norbert Mao, former DP president general Paul Ssemogerere and Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago at the opening of The Democratic Alliance offices in Kampala 2015. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

This Article is Written By Norbert Mao:

For 18 years, Jaycee Lee Dugard was a captive of Philip Garido, her abductor. She had every chance to cry out for help or even flee from captivity. But she didn’t.

Her captor had a small business. Jaycee Lee helped run the business. She received orders via phone and emails. Sometimes she even met and greeted clients at the door - alone. But she never made the choice to escape. She even went out in public. But each time she faithfully returned to the tiny congested shed in the back of the home of the man who reportedly kidnapped her and repeatedly raped her.

Why? Carl Probyn, Jaycee’s stepfather said “Jaycee has strong feelings with this guy”. Why do victims tend to identify with those who victimise them? Is it because it keeps them alive? Is it because they think their wellbeing is embedded in the wellbeing of their tormentors? Is it about self preservation?

In January 2010 she fell out with FDC and founded the Uganda Federal Alliance becoming its first (hopefully not last) President. Her case was strong and she ran a strong campaign. As a believer in Federalism, I agreed with her that for too long many have paid nothing but lip service to federalism. I recall the day I shared a podium at the 2009 Buganda Conference at Hotel Africana. She spoke boldly about our traditional norms and urged participants not to be ashamed of tradition after all tradition and modernity can coexist.

By all counts, Beti Kamya knows what she is doing. After all she is a woman of substance. She is well-educated, articulate and knows the world of politics well.

She is now Kampala minister. And she has joined the fray with gusto. Many have speculated as to how she catapulted herself to the position. Some have even alleged that she was part of the sleeper cell embedded in the Opposition to spy for the Museveni regime.

In defence, she lambasted her critics saying she started as a child of NRM and only joined the Opposition out of disenchantment. And now she has been disenchanted by the opposition, no one knows to what extent, and that is why she has moved full circle to rejoin the NRM. She accuses the Opposition for being blind to her leadership ability and potential. She lauds Museveni for noticing her vast abilities.

Recently, in a teary-eyed emotional outburst in praise of Museveni, she just stopped short of singing Amazing Grace, namely; “I was once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see”. She abandoned her own presidential ambitions and declared that she would work tirelessly to ensure that Museveni wins 80 per cent in the 2021.

As infuriating as that about face is, it says something about Ms Kamya’s state of mind. She doesn’t give credit to the Opposition which gave her a platform from which she caught the eye of Museveni. Instead she seems remorseful that she didn’t see the light sooner.

That is the reason I started with the story of Jaycee Lee Dugard. Beti Kamya once called Museveni a “monster”. She now sees him as as a redeemer. What has happened? Has she lost her way the way she lost her way in the 2011 presidential campaigns ending up in Tanzania?

That is what psychologists call the Stockholm syndrome. The term Stockholm syndrome was coined in 1973. Two robbers stormed Kreditbanken in Stockholm, Sweden, and held employees hostage for about a week. In this period the hostages and their captors became very close.

They became emotionally attached and even defended them after the ordeal. The Stockholm syndrome is a “psychological response of a hostage or an individual in a similar situation in which the more dominant person has the power to put the victim’s life in danger.

Perpetrators occasionally use this advantage to get victims to comply with their demands.”

As Niccolo Machiavelli said “Men, when they receive good from whence they expect evil, feel the more indebted to their benefactor.” My advice to Kamya is that she should adjust with equanimity to her new role and station.

There is no need to fret and fume at every criticism. After all, there is a limit to how much you can defend yourself against being misunderstood by those who are bent on doing so.

mpmao@yahoo.com

'Reduce boarding schools at primary level'

Publish Date: Feb 27, 2015

Youths living in training camps being politicised in NRM ideologies.

By Alex Gahima, Clare Muhindo & David Lumu

KAMPALA - Uganda. Some Ugandan educationists have proposed to government a wide range of changes in the education system of the country, including banning boarding schools at primary level, which they say has endangered the family development of children.

Prof. Abdu Kasozi, the former executive director of the National Council for Higher Education said that if the Ugandan education system is to compete with the changing societal demands and the highly-technology driven world, a group of eminent people need to undertake a study and recommend a revised education curriculum.

the abolition of the specialization in arts and science but rather pursue a combination of subjects up to degree level

“The major aims of education in Uganda haven’t changed since the missionaries came. There is a need to re-think our education system and align it with the changing digital and other societal changes since 1986,” he said.

No respect for knowledge

Kasozi was speaking at the inaugural annual Prof. William Senteza Kajubi memorial lecture at Makerere University main hall.

Prof. Kajubi died in 2012 at the age of 86.

A 1989 report penned by the late Prof. William Senteza Kajubi was crucial for higher education reforms in Uganda. (File photo credit: Samuel Lutwama)

“Abolish the current specialisations into arts on the one side and sciences on the other, until students have completed their first degree. We are proposing that government discourages boarding schools at primary level,” said Kasozi.

‘Re-thinking Uganda’s education system’ was the theme of the lecture, and several professors and educationists in attendance seconded Kasozi’s proposals, which they said, would help re-organise Uganda’s education to the labour market.

The Chancellor of Makerere University, Prof. Mondo Kagonyera also expressed the lack of respect for knowledge as the main reason Ugandans are corrupt.

He called upon government to allow educationists to craft an education policy containing the various reforms as proposed by Kasozi for implementation.

‘Extremely concerned’

Kagonyera also called upon government to revert Kyambogo University into a polytechnic because it has failed as a university.

“I am extremely concerned about the trend which education is taking in this country. It shocks me that we have people in this country who don’t respect knowledge. Why should Government continue to blame Makerere University and other institutions for producing people who cannot create jobs yet they have not told us what kind of people they want us to produce?

“Kyambogo was meant to churn out teachers and technicians but it has failed to be a university. government should revert it to what they were supposed to do.”

The tough-talking Kagonyera however cautioned educationists not to leave education policies to politicians because they are fond of making contradictory pronouncements without carefully thinking of the impact.

He also criticized teachers’ unions for cherry-picking on salary increments rather than raising key education changes that the society needs.

‘People of ideas’

The main discussant of Kasozi’s keynote address, Dr. Ronald Bisaso, the dean of East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development, said that throughout his career as an educationist, the late Senteza Kajubi advocated for changes in the education system – a spirit that government and other stakeholders should embrace.

“People of power need people of ideas. It is a balance advanced countries have come to appreciate,” he said.

The Prof. William Senteza Kajubi memorial lecture, according to Dr. Fred Masagazi Masaazi, the Principal College of Education and External Studies, would be held every year to pay tribute to the renowned educationist.

The fallen professor is the author of the famous Kajubi Report (1989) which set the ball rolling for higher education reforms in the country.

His son, Wasswa Yoweri Kajubi, welcomed the idea of the lecture and also welcomed the proposal by Makerere University to build a lecture theatre and a foundation in memory of his father.

The lecture was attended by a number of dignitaries, including the Vice Chancellor of Makerere Prof. John Ddumba Ssentamu, former Prime Minister Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Maria Kiwanuka, the Auditor General John Muwanga, former Education and Sports minister Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire, ex-DP president Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere among others.

Just after the concluded national election a Buhweju Member of Parliament is prominsing better times for a dilapidated school in the Western Province of Uganda.

Buhweju MP Francis Mwijukye addresses students studying in a dilapidated classroom at Karungu Seed Secondary School in Buhweju District at the weekend. PHOTO BY ZADOCK AMANYISA

By Zadock Amanyisa

Posted Tuesday, June 28 2016

Buhweju- Buhweju County Member of Parliament Francis Mwijukye has teamed up with teachers and parents to demand an immediate inquiry into a dilapidated school bought by government six years ago.

The legislator, after inspecting Karungu Seed Secondary School in Ntoboora B Cell, Buhweju District, in a meeting with students, parents and teachers called for calm but promised to officially petition the ministry of Education and Parliament to ensure the matter is investigated.

The school is in a sorry state and a threat to the students amid fear that it might collapse on them. The school was bought by government from eight private developers in 2010 at Shs370 million.

Mr Mwijukye told Daily Monitor at the weekend that the cost of the school is also suspicious.

“I went to the school and found students doing exams under the tree. They told me they had run away from the collapsing buildings but were advised to do exams under the tree,” he said.

The legislator wants government to order for a value-for-money audit to establish the actual cost of the school and also explain why taxi payers’ money was spent on the old building.

He warned that he will not give officials the liberty to ‘play with” the findings of the investigations since all the stakeholders, including the entire community, want an explanation.

“Ministers swear in to serve people and this is the time for the Education minister to start working and deliver. She should visit the school and establish the value for money. Procedures and necessary steps should be followed to help the suffering students and parents at the school,” the legislator said.

It is reported that Karungu Seed SS was sold to government between 2008 and 2010 but the valuers took photos of a different school to inflate the value of the school and rip-off government.

The school was started in 1999 by eight private developers. Government bought it in 2010 as part of the national plan to establish a secondary school in every sub-county.

The transaction was entered and made by the school directors, including Mr Lawrence Kamukama, Augustus Abenaitwe, Isaac Rubafunya, Vincent Gumisiriza, Evadio Katsigazi and Expedito Rukundo, then commissioner for secondary education in the ministry of Education John Agaba, Bushenyi District chief administrative officer Charles Kiberu and District Education Officer Norman Rukumu.

Pictures of a different school, believed to be Kitagata Secondary School in the neighboring Sheema District with better infrastructure, were taken and presented as purported representation of Karungu Seed SS. Government then bought the school at an apparent inflated valuation, which led to the ministry neglecting the school after finding out the rip-off.

The school had more than 450 students at the time of government takeover but the enrollment has dropped to below 300 due to the poor conditions. Stakeholders in the sub-county have petitioned several authorities but to no avail.

The Bahororo are Batutsi Political Refugees from the African Kingdom-Country of Ruanda:

Posted 12 December, 2016

By Mr Mulindwa

Bahororo are Batutsi from Rwanda who founded a short-lived Mpororo kingdom (hence the name Bahororo that is people of Mpororo kingdom) in present-day northern Rwanda and southwest Uganda mostly in present-day Ntungamo and parts of present-day Kabale district.

This is King Kigeli V whose ancestors struggled to mantain the Kingdom of Ruanda.

The kingdom was established around 1650 in areas already settled by Bantu people. It disintegrated around 1750 or earlier because of internal disputes.

Bahinda ruling class of Bahima took over by military means parts of former Mpororo kingdom and absorbed them into Nkore kingdom. Other areas were administered mostly by agriculturalists and were later incorporated into expanded Ankole kingdom at the time of colonization.

Batutsi ruling class of Rwanda occupied former Mpororo areas in northern Rwanda. Those former Mpororo parts in Kabale became part of that mountainous area.

In Nkore Bahororo like Bantu became commoners (Bairu or slaves) under Bahinda dynasty. Bahororo who resented this inferior identification returned to Rwanda where prospects were better.

In 1800 a branch of Bahororo fled to Rujumbura with their standing army and with support of Arab slave traders they managed to defeat Bantu settlers and expand the territory.

Bahororo in Ankole and Rujumbura became Bahima, in Kabale they became Bakiga and in Rwanda they became Batutsi. Wherever Bahororo settled in Uganda and other parts, they adopted local names and local languages.

However, they remained Bahororo in everything else. To retain their Bahororoness, they decided that their men would never marry outside Bahororo group. They also harbored the idea of recreating Mpororo kingdom someday and expand it into a larger empire.

Rujumbura in Rukungiri district presents a very tricky Bahororo situation which has confused many commentators including Ugandans and even Rujumbura people. Here is the puzzle.

For colonial administrative and indirect rule convenience which required tribal units, British authorities divided Kigezi district into three artificial tribal groups namely Bakiga, Banyarwanda and Bahororo.

In Rujumbura, all indigenous Bantu people from many clans and Bahororo refugees became Bahororo administratively under Bahororo chiefs.

However, what I will call “at a political level” for lack of a better term, Bahororo were divided into Bairu and Bahima the reason being that since Bairu did not have capacity to govern they should be governed by Bahima who are “born leaders”. Thus the division was to separate Bahima from Bairu so that indirect rule uses Bahima only. This political relationship of ruler and ruled has remained virtually unchanged irrespective of education and work experience of the two groups. You need to look at key figures from Rukungiri district to confirm what is being said.

Thus, in Rukungiri Bairu are registered as Bahororo and indigenous Bahororo as Bahima although Bahima never settled in Rujumbura.

Thus Bahororo and Bairu came to be used more with reference to Bantu. To draw a distinction between them and Bakiga, Bairu call themselves Bahororo within the colonial Kigezi administration context. Bairu would not fit into that context. Some people who are unaware of this distinction continue to refer to all people of Rujumbura as Bahororo including recent Bakiga settlers. We therefore must draw a distinction between Batutsi Bahororo and Bantu/Bairu. That is why some Bairu are beginning to refer to themselves as Banyarujumbura or Banyarukungiri.

Indigenous Bahororo’s hidden interest for separateness as a distinct group surfaced during the negotiations for independence. Bahororo in Ankole long known as Bahima came out and demanded a separate (Mpororo) district. They did not succeed because Bahima would not allow it. The idea stayed alive and would be sustained by events that had taken place since the 1920s.

During economic and political hard times in Rwanda and Burundi, some Batutsi including some Bahororo who had returned to Rwanda when Mpororo kingdom disintegrated migrated to Uganda in search of work and security. As cattle people, they settled in areas where grazing is the main activity in Ankole, Buganda and Eastern and northern Uganda.

The political disturbances in Rwanda and Burundi before and after independence in 1962 drove many Batutsi and Batutsi/Bahororo into Uganda and settled in many parts of Uganda particularly in Buganda, Ankole and Toro and to a certain extent other parts of Uganda. Although they took on local names and adopted local languages in their places of refuge, they remained Batutsi or Bahororo in the sense that men do not marry outside their circles to this day in 2011.

Museveni whose political and imperial ideas began to form while he was in high school, witness his early interest in East African integration and federation, began to locate his Bahororo and Batutsi relatives in all parts of Uganda, causing some people to conclude why he has a sizeable number of history advisers.

When he started FRONASA group, a large number of members were Bahororo and Batutsi refugees. During the guerrilla war it is reported that some 25 percent of guerrilla fighters were Batutsi mercenaries and close allies to Museveni as records of commanders, intelligence and counter-intelligence officers show.

Meanwhile, Museveni researchers were identifying all Bahororo and Batutsi in Uganda and elsewhere to run the government when the guerrilla war was over. All Bahororo with Banyankole, Baganda, Bakiga, Batoro, Bateso names and languages etc have filled key positions in civil administration, business sector and security forces (military, intelligence, police and prisons).

To hide his plan, Museveni introduced the concepts of individual merit and anti-sectarianism to frustrate complaints against tribalism favoring his people.

Individual merit and anti-sectarianism instruments have enabled Museveni to fill virtually all important positions with Bahororo who pose as noted above as Baganda, Bakiga, Basoga, Bateso, Balango, Banyankole, Batoro etc. That is why it is important that when time comes Ugandans should demand family trees of leaders because this is the right thing to do in the interest of national security.

By the 1990s when Museveni felt he was in control, the words Mpororo and Bahororo surfaced in newspapers, on radio and TVs debates. The word Mpororo appeared on Uganda maps. In Rujumbura, the 1993 Odoki Commission report recorded all people there as Bahororo.

Gradually, people who had been known as Bahima or Batutsi came forward and declared themselves Bahororo. That is why Ugandans are now struggling to know who are Bahima, Batutsi and Bahororo. And some have asked me to help them solve the puzzle.

Let me begin in a roundabout way starting with their ancestry and level of civilization. There is sufficient evidence that the people we have known in Uganda as long horn cattle owners did not enter Uganda from Ethiopia but from Southern Sudan. Their ancestors were not Hamitic but Nilotic Luo-speaking people. There is no group as Hamitic or Nilo-Hamitic. These cattle people are not even descendants of Bachwezi for Bachwezi were a Bantu aristocracy. In terms of skin color, they are by and large darker than Bantu. Because of their nomadic nature and conflict over grass and water, they could not have developed and introduced civilizations including earthen works in central Uganda. Overall, they have destroyed much of what they found in areas where they have settled.

In some parts of Uganda they mixed thoroughly with indigenous people and formed new communities.

However, by the time new waves entered south west Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, they had decided against intermarriage with indigenous Bantu. Instead they decided to fight, trick, dispossess, impoverish and marginalize Bantu people and turn them into slaves for perpetual domination. Staying pure would preserve their Nilotic identity and keep secrets to themselves. But they would disguise their Nilotic identity by adopting local names and languages, even adopting local institutions like the Bahutu title of Mwami or king for their king in Rwanda.

Besides adopting local names and languages, they have also taken on new names. Thus in Ankole they are Bahima, in Burundi and Rwanda Batutsi, in northern Rwanda and southwest Uganda Batutsi from Rwanda became Bahororo and Batutsi from Rwanda became Banyamulenge in eastern DRC.

They are scattered in many parts of the great lakes region. Museveni is therefore tapping into this pool of Batutsi and Batutsi/Bahororo/Banyamulenge in his efforts to create Tutsi Empire via East African federation.

To sum up, Bahororo are Batutsi from Rwanda. Banyamulenge are also Batutsi from Rwanda. Because of their common ancestry, Bahima, Batutsi, Bahororo and Banyamulenge are Nilotic cousins and are still Nilotic in identity because men do not marry outside their Nilotic ethnic group.

Because of their tradition as fighters over grazing land and watering points, Museveni and his people specialized in fighting. When they entered the great lakes region they were able to defeat settled Bantu people who did not need standing armies because there was nothing to fight about. There was enough land, enough food and enough of everything else they needed to meet their basic requirements.

In Rwanda, Bahutu were dispossessed by Batutsi who introduced a feudal system of masters and servants or slaves. This is the tradition that Batutsi later Bahororo introduced into parts that later became southwest Uganda especially in present-day Ntungamo and Rukungiri districts especially Rujumbura county. Bahororo have dominated Bantu/Bairu through dispossession, impoverishment and marginalization since around 1800 as was done to Bahutu in Rwanda.

In Ankole and Rukungiri Bantu people are still called Bairu (servants or slaves). Occasionally you hear stories of Bahororo boasting that one Muhororo (singular for Bahororo) is worth 1000 Bairu or something like that or that Bairu will be ruled indefinitely. These utterances are hurting especially to people who have worked so hard to shake off this stigma but are still kept down at gun point.

The Bahororo 50 year master plan adopted in 1992 is an attempt to extend Bairu enslavement to all parts of Uganda. That is why Museveni refuses to provide school lunches, to help ease rising food and fuel prices and to create jobs for our unemployed youth, blaming all this on external forces beyond NRM’s control.

The same model will apply when Museveni becomes the first president of East African political federation which he is pushing so hard.

Museveni has been arming himself for a fight because he knows some day Ugandans will discover what is going on. That is why talk of possible genocide is in the air and NRM determination not to allow it. That is why we are advising those who want to unseat Museveni by military means to think again. We don’t want our people to run into a lion’s den.

If opposition attacks first, Museveni will brand the attackers as terrorists to destabilize the country and overthrow an “elected” government. He will likely get support of African Union and the international community that is in no mood for war. Museveni will then take advantage of this invasion to clean up the country of undesirable elements and lay the foundation for Bahororo to rule indefinitely.

Let us not give him this chance. Let us defeat him and his NRM system by using a combination of soft and silent diplomatic means which have begun to work and internal civil disobedience to make Uganda ungovernable until NRM is forced out peacefully. This is where NRM is vulnerable. The political, economic, social and diplomatic situation is not in its favor.

Museveni has seen what happened to his late friend when he used force against unarmed people demanding their liberty, justice and dignity peacefully.

The struggle against Museveni and his regime requires political maturity, vision, coordination and bold leadership for peaceful regime change.

The United Nation in New York, USA, is warning The Sudan that it is going to stop funding political refugees in its country:

By Agencies

Posted Tuesday, April 26 2016

UN agencies warned on Monday that an acute funding shortfall is hampering their work in assisting thousands of South Sudanese political refugees who have fled to neighbouring Sudan.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011, but two years later it descended into a brutal civil war that has killed tens of thousands of civilians.

More than 50,000 South Sudanese have fled into Sudan since January to escape the violence and food shortages across the border.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN Children's Fund and the World Food Programme said they were facing a shortfall of more than $400 million which was affecting their work.

"Our resources are being stretched at a time when needs are quickly growing," the UNHCR's Sudan representative, Mohamed Adar, said in a joint statement with UNICEF and the WFP.

"Further shortfalls in funding will hamper our ability to continue providing assistance for the existing South Sudanese refugees in Sudan, while also responding to the emergency needs of new arrivals."

The UNHCR said its humanitarian requirements for 2016 were only 18 percent funded, "leaving over $128 million in unmet needs".

UNICEF and WFP said limited resources were hampering refugees' access to even basic needs.

"UNICEF is gravely concerned it may have to cut back on crucial lifesaving water, sanitation, nutrition, health and protection assistance" to more than 100,000 children from South Sudan, UNICEF said, adding it was facing a shortfall of $105 million.

The WFP, for its part, said it was facing a 12-month funding shortfall of $181 million.

In total, 678,000 South Sudanese refugees are currently being hosted in neighbouring countries with 221,000 in Sudan, the UN agencies said.

- Thousands more expected -More refugees are expected to arrive ahead of the rainy season in South Sudan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a separate statement.

"A total of 93,000 South Sudanese refugees are anticipated in East Darfur by the end of June, with an additional 7,000 in South Darfur," it said.

Until recently, the Sudanese government did not give them the status of refugees, instead according them many of the same rights and benefits as Sudanese citizens.

But Khartoum ended that policy last month and said South Sudanese should be classified as "foreigners" as punishment for Juba's alleged support for rebels battling Sudanese troops in the border region.

Nb

Indeed this is an African Region with lots of Political Refugees that cannot immigrate North into Europe and the United States of America. Of course no African refugees like to immigrate to Asia and China or Japan. And many more African refugees are being generated from undemocratic African States, like Burundi, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. It is un sustainable indeed for the UN to spend money on such expanding problems in Africa.

ADJUMANI - Uganda is the ninth largest refugee hosting country in the world, revealed Neimah Warsame, the UNHCR country representative in the country.

Warsame applauded Uganda for the good conducive environment accorded to the refugees unlike in other countries that close their doors observing that worldwide refugees were estimated to be over 60 million while 86% of them were being hosted by developing countries which remain a burden to them.

“Uganda is now home to more refugees than any time in history and has become the ninth largest refugee hosting country in the world and third in this region,” she explained.

She asked global powers to stop being passive observers or distant players to the conflicts that are driving so many from their homes.

She said; “It is now urgent that powers that have influence over those involved in conflict put aside their differences and create the conditions to end bloodshed.”

Warsame was speaking at the commemoration of the world refugee day at Dziapi primary school in Dziapi sub county Adjumani district on Saturday under the theme: “Refugees are regular people, get to know and support them.”.

Gen. Ali on a an exhibition tour during the commemoration of world refugee day at Dziapi primary school in Adjumani district. PHOTO/ Arnest Tumwesige

The second deputy Prime Minister Rtd. Gen. Moses Ali who was chief guest warned that refugees living in Uganda to stay off politics or else face arrest.

Gen. Ali said for refugees to involve in Ugandan politics when they were not entitled would lead them to jail.

He cautioned them to rather enjoy the peace accorded by the government, and concentrate on refugee activities.

“The laws are not made specifically for anybody but for law breakers. You can drop from heaven and if you break our laws you will be put in prison,” he emphasized.

Clad in army fatigue, the General equally cautioned UNHCR on the restoration of the environment that refugees destroy by cutting trees to construct their houses and as source of fire.

He said, about 14 million trees had been cut and yet not replanted as required by UNHCR.

“Today, Uganda is a host to 466, 135 refugees from various countries. Our treatment and handling of refugees has been hailed by international community and UNHCR. We are proud as a county to be associated with this noble cause,” he said.

He however asked for support from international community to Uganda to continue serving the high number of refugees in a dignified manner.

Gen. Moses Ali listen to an AMREF staff during an exhibition to commemorate world refugee day. PHOTO/ Arnest Tumwesige

Jessy Kamstra from Lutheran World Federation, speaking on behalf of implementing partners, also acknowledged that Uganda was receiving refugees from DRC, Burundi and South Sudan because of its priceless generosity.

Nixon Owole, the Adjumani district chairman, asked government and implementing partners to support the refugees with income generating activities so that they can become self-reliant.

Owole equally asked them to take advantage of the education system in Uganda to improve their literacy so that when they go back to their countries they go to serve than being served.

Musa M. Tombe, the refugee representative from Alere settlement camp, said the location of schools far from them was affecting accessibility.

Tombe equally decried some ill minded people who deceive their children in the name of providing them scholarships and later on abandon them along the way.

“Some of us have been in Uganda as refugees for over 20 years; we request government to grant us citizenship because we are not willing to go back,” he said.

He commended the host community for the good relation which has improved despite earlier indiscipline cases amongst themselves.

The very High Salaries for sitting African presidents in this Century when many African citizens are running away from their mother countries:

By Africa Review team

Posted Thursday, July 23 2015

When Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari recently announced that he and his deputy would take a pay cut, it was not entirely surprising for a man known for his austerity, and who faces a challenge cutting back the excesses in the country’s FINANCES.

But President Buhari is not the first African leader to announce a pay cut. In fact, it is a popular recourse for others trying to shore up their popularity, or facing tough economic times.

In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto last year announced a voluntary 20 per cent salary cut and invited other top government officials to follow suit. A few did, reluctantly.

In Tunisia, former President Moncef Marzouki, then facing an economic crisis in the post-revolution period, announced a two-thirds pay cut, slicing his annual pay from around $176,868 (Ksh 17m) to ‘just’ $58,956 (Ksh5.8m).

The Africa Review has compiled and analysed salaries of African leaders to try and see what they tell about the relationship between those in power and the governed. The search shows that only a few countries make public what they pay their leaders – a key finding itself that suggests a lack of transparency.

In many African countries, the first thing leaders do when they come into power is to increase their pay: In Egypt, for instance, the president’s pay shot up from a paltry $280 per month, put in place by the austere Mohammed Morsy administration, to $5,900 (Ksh584,000) per month just before General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi predictably won election.

In other countries, leaders take a disproportionate share of the national income for their personal use. In Morocco, the Treasury spends, by one account, $1 million a day on King Mohammed VI’s 12 royal palaces and 30 private residences. That is on top of $7.7 million spent on an entourage of royal automobiles, and a monthly salary of $40,000 (Ksh4m) paid to the monarch.

In 2014, King Mswati of Swaziland increased his personal budget, which includes his salary and the welfare of his extensive family, by 10 per cent to $61 million, a significant chunk of the kingdom’s overall budget. As the royal budget isn’t debated or passed by Parliament, it automatically became law.

Some presidents have deceptively small salaries but have, personally or through family members, massive control over their countries’ resources.

For example, President Eduardo dos Santos has a modest monthly salary of $5,000 (Ksh500,000) but is widely believed to control a lot of the wealth produced from Angola’s oil-industry, and his family members own some of the biggest enterprises in the country.

The Africa Review was unable to establish the official salary for Teodoro Obiang’ Nguema Mbasogo, the long-serving president of the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, but it probably doesn’t matter.

With vast oil wealth and a population of less than a million, Equatorial Guinea has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and should be a first-world nation. Instead, most of its wealth ends up in the hands of its notoriously corrupt First Family.

As an example, the US Department of Justice, in an indictment of the younger Teodoro Nguema Obiang’ Mangue, said the first son had spent about $315 million on property and luxury goods between 2004 and 2011, despite his job as a government minister paying less than $100,000 per year.

However, not all African leaders are money-grabbing, power-hungry brutes. In April 2015 Cape Verde President João Carlos Fonseca vetoed – for the fourth time, no less – a Bill that would, among other things, have increased his salary and that of other political officials.

The highest-paid leader, the research could find, is Paul Biya, whose $610,000 (Ksh61m) annual salary is almost three times that of South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, despite the South African economy being 10 times bigger than Cameroon’s.

Rather than simply rank the leaders based on absolute figures, The Africa Review decided to compare their gross annual salaries with the Gross National Income of their countries – basically comparing the leader’s pay with what their nationals, on average, earn.

Unsurprisingly, President Biya comes out on top again, earning 229 times what an average Cameroonian earns, followed by Liberia where President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf earns 113 times what her average citizen does.

Although Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud makes the top 10 with his annual salary of $120,000 (Ksh12m), the country is excluded from the comparative study due to the lack of verifiable GNI per capita figures.

Overall, it appears that leaders of poor countries tend to pay themselves more than those in higher-income countries.

UGANDA IN THE MIDDLE OF LOOKING AFTER REFUGEES LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTRE.

MONDAY, 03 AUGUST 2015 05:25

BY RONALD MUSOKE

Youthful Congolese refugees undergo an entrepreneurship training at the

InterAid offices in Kampala recently.

Courtesy Photo

Kampala. UGANDA:

This country has become a global example of how best to help people who flee their home country

Uganda is a developing country with meagre resources but despite that, the country is leading the way in terms of refugee response. For this, says Charlie Yaxley, the UNHCR Associate External Relations Officer in Kampala, Uganda deserves special praise. “Uganda has a unique policy towards refugees,” says Yaxley, “It already has land which has been designated for refugees before they even come.

In addition to the free land, the refugees have freedom of movement around Uganda. They are also allowed to seek employment; they are able to get jobs, to try and sustain themselves.

“They can try and open businesses if they wish. This is opposed to so many other countries which require refugees and asylum seekers to stay in camps all the time”.

Yaxley told The Independent in a recent interview that UNHCR commends the government for this “exceptionally generous policy.”

Pecos Kuliloshi’s refugee life in Uganda is perhaps the best example of how Uganda’s refugee policy which is praised around the world as one of the most progressive works.

Kuliloshi fled his home in Kiziba village in Bukavu, South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in November 2000 at the age of 23. This was at the peak of the Congolese civil war that led to the ousting of the late Congolese president, Laurent Kabila, from power. Kuliloshi was a member of a human rights advocacy group.

Full of ideas and bubbling with energy at the time, Kuliloshi remembers demonstrating against the foreign armies’ massive violation of human rights of eastern Congolese. He fled when he got to know of plans to neutralise the leaders of the group.

He remembers being helped by Catholic priests from Bukavu who gave him some little money and transported him through Jomba via Goma to Southwestern Uganda.

“I crossed with the Father to Uganda as if we were going to buy groceries,” he says. “I later boarded a bus headed for Kampala to seek safety, hoping to return home as soon as the situation normalised.”

It has never.

No easy life

When Kuliloshi arrived in Kampala, everything around him seemed different. He only spoke his native Mashi, Lingala, French, and Kiswahili languages.

At a time when refugees were not allowed to stay in urban areas like Kampala, except in the settlements, Kuliloshi insisted on staying in the city.

“Life was never easy,” he says.

Back in Congo, Kuliloshi had graduated with a diploma in education and was teaching French, Philosophy and Psychology but when he arrived in Uganda, he soon realised that the knowledge he had was of no value unless he learnt English.

He had to start from scratch but at least there were chances of him trying to forge a new life. He says he was free to move anywhere in Kampala. He embarked on doing odd jobs, especially on road construction.

“That is how I used to survive; buying food, clothes and shoes,” he says.

But this kind of work was too hard for him and in 2003 he got a softer job as a cleaner in a hospital.

Kuliloshi took the decision to integrate in the Ugandan society in 2005. When he decided to learn English, the British Council library in Kampala proved a good place to start.

“That is where I would spend a lot of time reading books with the help of a dictionary,” he says.

One day Kuliloshi who is a Catholic chanced on a mass at Christ the King Church in Kampala which was organising a youth conference. He attended and got friends who convinced him to join the St. Joseph Choir. He agreed but on one condition: he would only join a choir which sings in English.

“That helped me to grasp words and to this day, the English I speak is because of the choir.”

Today Kuliloshi is fluent in both English and Luganda— the most widely spoken local dialect from Central Uganda. He seems to be at peace and quite familiar with Kampala life.

But as another refugee; Saleh Idres Adam, testifies, anyone fleeing their country does not have to be as familiar with Kampala as Kuliloshi to feel safe in Uganda.

“Life in Kampala is difficult. We are refugees and we don’t have work and we don’t have capital to start business,” says Adam, “But I choose Uganda because it is secure and peaceful. When I am here I feel grateful that no one is going to disturb me.”

Adam fled Khartoum, the capital of his home country, Sudan, in 2010 because, he says, he was fed up with the discrimination of black Sudanese by Arabs. He says this escalated during the Darfur conflict.

“The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia attacked the Darfurian people because they are jealous of our resources which they want to take control of. We have gold, uranium, oil and everything, that is why they came to Darfur to clear us.” “We are very rich,” Adam tries to explain the reasons as to why the Darfur conflict has been raging on for more than a decade.

Some humanitarian and relief agency accounts say the conflict has cost 400,000 lives, and displaced over 3 million people.

At the height of the conflict, Adam was in Khartoum pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture. Communication between him and his family suddenly got cut off and to this day, Adam says, he does not know what happened to his family.

He tried to continue with his studies but the discrimination of Darfurians in Khartoum worsened.

“There were killings and arrests,” he told The Independent in a recent interview, “My security was no longer guaranteed.”

Although he was three years into his five year Agricultural degree programme, he decided to leave.

Adam is probably six feet tall, dark-skinned and has sparkling white teeth. When he speaks in English, he does so slowly and cautiously. He speaks with a heavy Arabic accent and struggles to pronounce certain words. He says he arrived in Kampala in 2011, via South Sudan. He says there are 500 refugees from Darfur who now call Kampala home.

Big numbers, progressive policies

Adam and Kuliloshi show why Uganda is being praised around the world for its progressive approach to the refugee issue.

Uganda, through the 2006 Refugee Act and the 2010 Refugee regulations, has domesticated many of the principles of the 1951 Refugee Convention which defines the rights of refugees. These include the right not be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions; the right to work, the right to housing, education, public relief and assistance, freedom of religion, access to the courts; right to freedom of movement within the country and the right to be issued identity and travel documents.

UNHCR, together with the Office of the Prime Minister, leads the co-ordination of the refugee response.

As soon as the refugees cross Ugandan borders, the government works in collaboration with UNHCR and other local refugee agencies to register and issue civil identity documents to individual refugees, decide on asylum applications and appeals, deploy civil servants, health workers and teachers to refugee settlements; and contribute medical supplies and staff to refugee operations.

Several refugee settlements have been setup around the country in the districts of Arua, Adjumani, Moyo, Kyenjojo, Hoima, Masindi and Isingiro. Active settlements include Nakivale, Oruchinga, Kyangwali, Kiryandongo, Paralonya, and the integrated camps of Adjumani. There are options for asylum seekers and refugees to stay in urban areas like Kampala as long as they can be self-reliant.

According to the UNHCR, Uganda is currently hosting the biggest number of refugees in its history. This makes it the ninth-largest refugee hosting country in the world and fourth-largest host country relative to national GDP.

Yaxley told The Independent that UNHCR has since 2014 seen a record number of refugees as more people flee their homes in Burundi, South Sudan, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Syria, Ukraine and Iraq. Yaxley says Uganda currently gets between 3,000-4,000 new arrivals every month.

By May, there were 71,949 refugees living in Kampala with 45% of these being children. An equally bigger number of this population is adolescents, youths and women.

70 year history

Uganda’s experience with refugees dates back to the colonial era. At the peak of the Second World War in 1942, for instance, the country hosted 7000 Polish refugees (mainly women and children) in Nyabyeya and Kojja in Masindi and Mukono districts respectively.

Scholastica Nasinyama, the executive director of InterAid, a local NGO that has been helping refugees to settle in Uganda since 1988 says their goal, together with UNHCR, is to give refugees in Uganda hope.

“The refugees are Uganda’s guests and they need to get that assistance at the same level as us,” says Nasinyama who has in particular worked with refugees for the last 20 years, moving through the ranks to the top at InterAid.

“We try to make local communities understand who refugees are; why they are here in Uganda; what role each one of us has to play as well as inform them that refugees are supposed to access public services at the same level as the rest of the Ugandans.

“We explain to them the uniqueness of the refugee needs. We explain to them why there could be unique situations that the refugee children, for instance, may present at school.”

“We go out to the schools to do group counseling to both refugees and the local children; we also explain all this to senior male and female teachers to deal with individual children with unique challenges.”

At the InterAid offices near the Buganda Kingdom seat at Lubiri in Rubaga Division, it is not unusual to find groups of urban refugees engaged in training to acquire business and other entrepreneurship skills.

“This training helps them to start some small businesses, mobilise savings and live within their means.” “We get ideas from them; then we transform them to build a business plan,” Joram Mwebaze, a trainer told The Independent recently after taking Congolese refugee youths through a business planning session.

At the nearby Antonio Gutterez Community Centre in Kampala’s Rubaga Division, another group of mainly Congolese women attend a handicrafts making class.

But this centre plays another important role in the lives of urban refugees. Hundreds of refugee youths turn up here every evening to surf the internet and connect with the world; they play football, volleyball and football here while others choose to keep their music talent alive by practicing. The idea is to help them get together and do something meaningful in their lives, says Nasinyama.

Agnes Mujawayesu, a Rwandan refugee who arrived in Uganda a decade ago with her two daughters leads one of the women’s groups called Abisunganye.

Her entry into Uganda was also difficult. But she never pitied herself. It was not long before she started getting involved with local NGOs which help refugees live a fairly decent life in the city. She joined other groups to learn how to make art and crafts.

She now teaches female refugees to make crafts. She has about 30 members in her group. The group comprises Congolese, Burundian, Rwandan and Ugandan nationals.

They make key holders, bags, and other simple interior decorations. But like the rest of the low income earner Ugandans who accuse Kampala Capital City Authority’s law enforcement officers of harassment, Mujawayesu also says her members struggle to find a market for their creations.

Nasinyama hopes the new legal framework will enable the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), the UN and other local NGOs come together and try to improve the refugee services not only in the refugee settlements but also in urban areas like Kampala.

She is happy refugee development issues have now been included in the second National Development Plan.

“We are beginning to look at refugees as part of us.”

“Today it is them, tomorrow it may be us. It is our turn to help the refugees because we are brothers and sisters. You never know what tomorrow might bring,” she says.

But even then, we still remind the refugees about the laws of Uganda.

“If you are a guest in Uganda, you must observe the laws; you must know the systems and procedures and behave like any of the Ugandans.”

- See more at: http://www.independent.co.ug/news/news-analysis/10487-refugee-haven#sthash.rVr3D2Q9.dpuf

An Employment company in Uganda is implicated in

international human trafficking:

Publish Date: Aug 13, 2015

Musa Ahmed, Director of Sauman Services Ltd referring to a New Vision story of

Wednesday 12 August as he addresses the press. Photo by Roderick Ahimbazwe

By Roderick Ahimbazwe

THE management of a labour exporting company has refuted claims by a suspected human trafficker that he operated on their behalf.

While speaking during a press conference at the company premises in Kabalagala on Thursday, Musa Ahmed the director of Sauman Services Ltd distanced the company from allegations of human trafficking.

Earlier this week, Police in Kawempe held Shiekh Abdallah Masaaba of Masjid Noor Mosque in Mbale over suspected human trafficking.

The police had found 20 women at Masaaba’s rented house in Kawempe, with the women reportedly saying that Masaaba had promised to help them process passports and find employment abroad.

On his part, Masaaba reportedly said that he was simply helping the women get passports and that he was to hand the women over to a professional company (allegedly Sauman) to secure them jobs in the Middle East.

“We are licensed by the Ministry of Labour and we mostly get people casual jobs in Saudi Arabia and we always encourage parents or relatives to accompany those seeking employment overseas through our company,” Ahmed noted.

He further revealed that while Shiekh Abdallah charged the women money, Sauman didn’t charge any money especially for women seeking housekeeping jobs in the Middle East.

“I also call upon people seeking jobs abroad not to simply trust anyone claiming to link them to jobs abroad and to always go accompanied by relatives while applying,” Ahmed advised.

As per reports, human trafficking has emerged as a serious problem in Uganda in the recent years, with 181 victims rescued in the last year.

The report says most victims were trafficked for labour, sexual and other forms of exploitation.